Fashion tech start-up Virgio bags $37 mn funding; funds to go towards technology development, hiring

Fashion tech start-up Virgio on Friday announced that it has raised $37 million in Series A funding round co-led by Prosus Ventures, Accel and Alpha Wave. The funds will go towards further technology development and hiring, the company said in a statement.

Traditionally, the fashion industry has operated on depth and discount models, said Amar Nagaram, CEO and founder, Virgio. "At the core of Virgio is the tech foundation, which is always listening to evolving trends on social media platforms and predicting the demand for each trend. This is then fed into our agile and responsive supply chain to enable the trendiest, elegant and yet affordable line in near real-time. Thus, Virgio is pioneering the test and scale method, making runway fashion accessible and affordable for all consumers, while eliminating excess inventory for manufacturers," he added.

Founded in 2022, Virgio's model uses technology throughout the design, manufacturing and purchasing process, to streamline the entire fashion lifecycle and enable a real-time fashion offering.

Ashutosh Sharma, head of India investments, Prosus Ventures, said that there is a large underserved market for branded apparel in India currently. Citing an example, he said that for women, only 25 per cent of fashion is branded apparel. "We are confident in Virgio’s tech-first model and believe the start-up’s expert founding team is uniquely positioned to capture a large opportunity in India’s fashion industry," Sharma stated.

Furthermore, Subrata Mitra, partner, Accel, mentioned that the time is ripe for this group to rapidly adopt digital practices, "given that we’re coming out of the pandemic that’s accelerated tech adoption across the board."

Virgio can be the change bearer and with their background they also understand Gen Z and millennial consumers to be able to provide a new, real-time way to shop for fashion, Mitra explained.

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